


Hostile Makeover

by Kittywitch



Series: Reconstruction Era O.Z. [2]
Category: SyFy's Tinman, Tinman
Genre: Gen, General fiction, Literature, Other, fan fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-03
Updated: 2015-01-03
Packaged: 2018-03-05 02:12:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3101357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kittywitch/pseuds/Kittywitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cain and Deegee discuss the fashion changes inherent in becoming the head of the palace guards and a princess.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hostile Makeover

Polished boots. Brown trousers. A brown coat in a familiar cut with an unfamiliar state of repair. Gold frogging, an embroidered vest, and above it all the face of a blond man who didn't look comfortable with this. Cain had never realized that Glitch had been wearing a uniform. And he never thought he'd be put into it himself.

Wyatt started to turn self-conciously in the mirror, then realized what he was doing and turned away with deliberate disinterest. This only let him see more of the room he was in, and that made him as uncomfortable as the uniform. He was not a man used to finding himself out of his element in any situation. But then again, he wasn't a man used to being put up in a _suite_ in a _palace._  
It was the "suite" part that got to him. There was more space in the three rooms assigned to him than the entire cottage he'd shared with his wife and son. And compared to the barracks in Central City he'd briefly habited as a bachelor? Compared to the tin suit... Cain sighed and rubbed his forehead. After years of stagnation, the changes were coming at him quicker than he'd ever seen them. He'd never say that he might be less than top form even after spending ten years trapped, unable to even raise his arm. No. He'd never say that.  
But the doubt would remain. He was getting older, and everything that had been part of his old life had been taken away. Even his son, his adorable, affectionate child, had been replaced with a withdrawn young man who looked like him like he was a ghost.  
He exhaled and dropped onto a couch. Even that felt wrong. It wasn't that the seat was uncomfortable, quite the contrary. It felt so... freshly upholstered. And clean. Like it had never had any boots put up on it. Cain grumbled in frustration. He didn't belong in this room.

Quite suddenly, so suddenly in fact Cain only just had time to draw his gun, the entry to the hall opened. A great deal of blue sheet lace held together with corsetry fluttered into the room, slamming the door behind it.  
"Can I hide in here?" asked Deegee. Cain stared at her dully for a moment.  
"Looking..." he paused. "Fancy, princess."  
Deegee scowled at him, completing the image of a scaled-up child. Two braids came from her temples and swept up over the loose waves to a bow in the back. She had a cameo on a choker which seemed to have been made to match her dress. Unless of course it was the other way around. There was a sweep of blue lace hanging like curtain off her shoulders, and if Cain was a tailor he'd have known it was called a bertha neckline. As he was a Tinman, his thought was that it looked like Deegee was wearing two skirts, one around her waist and one around her shoulders. Both were pale blue, somewhat fluffy and made entirely of lace. It only made sense that she was wearing two skirts, though. There were at least two corsets. The corset had seemed to have bred and sent it's young to her feet. The boots and the bodice were clearly related. There couldn't be that much white kidskin with blue embroidery unless there was some connection. He was sure there was a better use for young, white goats then being embroidered, but he wasn't about the mention that to her tailor. He wasn't actually sure what part of the outfit the gloves were trying to look like, but they fairly clearly were.  
Evidently, she had also been forcibly dressed.

"You're not one to talk there." she quipped. He shrugged.  
"Head of the palace guards." he offered, by way of an explanation. Cain stared intently at the young woman, waiting for hers.  
"Well, uh... I only had the one pair of jeans I came in; and when Az found out, she siced her tailors on me." DG explained unenthusiastically. She picked at a tendril of loose hair.  
"I escaped before the hairdressers could start on the... structural supports."  
"They got something." He mimed the sweep of the braids with his finger. She sighed.  
"I don't know. I mean-- I haven't lived here since I was five." she gestured vaguely at what she was wearing. "Is this normal?" she looked at her reflection and repeated it to herself.  
"Is this normal?"  
"Well, it's a bit fancier than what my wife used to wear, but... she wasn't a princess."  
"That's not what I meant." she grumbled. He stepped into place beside her and they both stared at their own reflections, then each others.  
"It is so weird to see you dressed like Glitch."  
"Trust me, it's weirder for me." Wyatt replied. "Glitch never said this was a uniform. I was thought he was just... kind of a dandy."  
"Those could both be true."  Deegee commented. He smiled and she let out a sound that seemed like to couldn't decide whether it was a sigh or a laugh.

Wyatt looked into the mirror again. His young friend moved beside him.  
"I'm not sure I can do this."  
"I know what you mean." he agreed.  
"It's not just the dress." she said weakly. "It's that it's-- it's real now. You save the world and now you have to live in it."  
She stared at her reflection.  
"It's not that don't want to. I love the O.Z. I feel like I belong here. But I... I have no idea what that means. What do I do now? Am I gonna be queen someday? I have no idea how to be queen! I don't even know how to be a princess! I... I don't know how to happily ever after." Wyatt gripped her shoulder in solidarity. She leaned over and gave him a brief hug.  
"Hey, kid." he said. "Let me tell you something. Everyone tells you that happily ever after is the house and the wife and the kid and the dog-"  
"You had a dog?"  
"Work with me, princess." he continued, "But I had all that, and let me tell you something. It's not happily ever after. Happily ever after is an end. And there is no end. The only end is death and the theologians aren't sure about that one. Life is great or life is hell, just roll with it because it's not gonna stick around long."  
"So what I am supposed to do?"  
"Like I know?" he shot. "Be a princess. Be an artist. Be tinker. Fix it and make it work. That's what your job is now. And, as I recall, that's what you're good at." She sighed. For all that he'd just snapped at her, she looked somewhat comforted by it.

"Anyway, what are you doing in here?"  
"I just wanted a reprieve..." Deegee groaned in a voice that was nearly a whine.  
"Suck it up, cupcake." Cain mumbled, taking his young friend by the shoulders and steering her towards the door. She stumbled badly in a silent protestation. "You're a princess now and you've got to act like one. Dress and all."  
"And you? You were whining right along with me!"  
"Yeah, yeah. And I've got to act like palace security herding a grumpy princess. That means no more commiseration." he said mildly. "Gonna miss the hat, though."  
"Do you feel better with someone to shout at?"  
"About as much as you feel better for being shouted at."  
Just before they reached it, there was a knock at the door.  
"Who is it?" asked Deegee before Cain could stop her.  
"It's me." replied her tutor, opening the door only wide enough to fit his head in. He turned his eyes to Deegee, "Azkadellia's looking for you."  
"Why do you look so happy about it?" she asked with an air of exasperation. He shrugged and entered the room the rest of the way.  
"Because she's not looking for me, I guess."  
The tutor took a seat on the couch and took a book from his pocket. Cain noticed with no particular interest that tutor had been given the same uniform as him.  
"So, is that all you came to say?" he asked.  
"Yes." said tutor. He started reading, totally ignoring the fact that he was in another person's personal quarters and hadn't so much as been invited in.  
"Is there anything else?" Cain suggested meaningfully. Tutor didn't look up to reply.  
"Azkadeilia's on the warpath. I barely escaped myself." Cain sighed in frustration.  
"Look at you two!" he shouted. "You'd think she still had the witch in her! I do not like this anymore than you, but there's nothing left to do but get used to it!"  
"Cain, you're overreacting..." Deegee sighed.  
"I'm overreacting? You're hiding from a hairdresser!"  
"I'm just not used to this... palacial regent fancy thing-"  
"No one is! What? You think you save the world and then it's over? I told you, it's not over! It's never over, it's life and it doesn't get easier! It just changes!"  
"Calm down a second, I'm only looking for a reprieve--"  
"Fine! Fine! We've defended evil, but a little domestic turmoil is too much for this group. I'll just open my doors to the refugees! Is there anyone else who wants to hide in here?" asked Cain exasperatedly.  
"Who's hiding in there?" called a voice from the hallway.  
Deegee and tutor cringed slightly. The tinman's brow furrowed, and he let off one more shout in his sudden burst of emotion.  
"Only half of the OZ, your excellency."

Azkadellia had the good manners to knock before she opened the door. Quite suddenly, DG's dress looked very practical and simple. This floaty, angelic gold and white mess entered Cain's room, and because Azkadellia was wearing it, she had no choice but to follow. She seemed somewhat larger than usual, her hair not only coiled on top of her head but around her shoulder, allowing the giant ruff to attach to the back of her dress. The effect was not dissimilar to a white peacock spreading it's tail.  
"Please, your highness; do join us." Cain grumbled sarcastically. He let go of the other princess and turned from the doorway. Maybe if he left them alone they would get bored and wander off. He was very fond of Deegee and her sister was perfectly nice once you got past her social awkwardness and minor obcession with fashion. But that didn't mean he wanted to spend every waking moment with them.  
He still wasn't sure what Tutor was doing there.

Deegee pouted at her sister petulantly. Azkadeilia looked about as hurt as she did.  
"Why did you run away? We were almost done."  
"I was just tired. I wanted a break."  
"Have I done something wrong?"  
"No, no..." Deegee took her sister's arm earnestly. "I'm just... adjusting."  
Azkadelia tensed.  
"And I'm not?" she shot quietly. "The only thing I've been doing is trying to undo the damage I was used to create, and dress like this." She gestured at her outfit. "It's the only part of my life before that I'm fairly sure even was me. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't even know who I am."  
Cain looked awkwardly around the room. This was starting to sound like a private confidence between sisters and he had no business hearing it. But then again, they had no business having it in his quarters.  
"Your highness, maybe you should go with your sister. Just to talk this over?"  
"But I'm still hiding." Deegee replied, only half joking. "Can't I claim sancurary or amnesty or something?" Azkadelia looked at her skeptically.  
"I think the transformation from 'princess and hero' to 'princess and heir' is going to take more than a dress."  
"I think you've got that much right. Your excellencies, respected collegue..." Cain began. He dropped to the couch opposite Tutor and swung his feet up between them, leaning on the armrest. "Why are you having this conversation in my room?"  
"I'm very sorry, Mister Cain." said Azkadelia formally, drawing herself up to her full, somewhat exaggerated height.  
"I've said what I came here to say, and I will respect your privacy. Goodday, Mister Cain."  
"Goodday, your highness."  
Before fulling leaving the room, she turned to her sister. perhaps to check to see if she had moved.  
"I'll get you looking pretty!" Az warned, backing out of the room. Her eyes fell to were Tutor had looked up from his book to stare uncomfortably at her.  
"You too!"

**Author's Note:**

> This is an older fic. To make matters worse, what follows is older commentary.  
> And here we learn that my Tinman fics are connected. Which means I should have posted "Telephone" first, since it happens before this and explains the circumstances of Cain's recent employment. It may be fanon that Cain becomes a bodyguard to the royal family after the show ends, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't explain it.
> 
> Mostly this story is about costume changes, with a heaping dose of the angst I was feeling when I was fresh out of high school and writing this. Everyone talks about working out your distress through art but I never expected to do it with fanfiction. Wouldn't it be great if everytime you yelled at someone, it was as effective as Cain?
> 
> This is not going to be the last Tinman fic I post that ends with a dumb joke. The one at the end of "Summer Day" is particularly bad.
> 
> Also, I wanted to point out--I was totally watching part one when I posted this. ^^


End file.
